Journeys to the Mythical Past by Zecharia Sitchin

Author:Zecharia Sitchin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Archaeology/Ancient Mysteries
Published: 2013-12-22T22:10:01+00:00

Austria. Using pickaxes, they managed to free the corpse and took it to Innsbruck,

where it was deposited in a local morgue. Lying unprotected, the body was shown

to local reporters. It was only then that Dr. Spindler, director of the Innsbruck

Institute of Prehistory, arrived at the morgue (the report that he flew to the

discovery site by helicopter, seems to be a later glorified version; but it was he

who had realized the uniqueness of the find).

The exposed corpse, by then almost a week out of its protective ice tomb, was

beginning to show a fungal infection on its skin. Spindler’s team treated the body

with fungicides, wrapped it in plastics, covered it with chipped ice, and moved it

to a cooled room at the university. It was thus that the Iceman was saved from

rotting disintegration.

It was then that the international media, alerted by Dr. Spindler’s statements that

an intact body of Bronze Age man had been discovered, became immensely

curious; and it was only then that the Italians awoke to the scientific and touristic

potentialities of the find. They demanded a determination on which side of the

Italian-Austrian border the body was actually found. When a joint survey team

decided that the site was 100 yards from the border— on the Italian side—the

Italians demanded the immediate transfer of the corpse to Italy. The Austrians

said, in effect, Finders Keepers.

The compromise that was worked out allowed the Austrians to keep the Iceman

—named by them Oetzi after the glacier’s name—and conduct tests for three

years; then he was to be handed over to the Italian authorities of South Tyrol. In

fact, the transfer occurred only in 1998, when the Italians were ready to keep the

body and its accoutrements in a former bank building converted to a specially

equipped museum—the Archaeological Museum of South Tyrol in Bolzano, the

regional capital.

It was there that I and my Earth Chronicles Expeditions group went in March

2000.

We left rainy Milan in the morning, and arrived in dry and chilly Bolzano, by

train, in the afternoon. The rooms in our hotel (Hotel Alpi) had small balconies,

enabling one to take in the Alpine view—towering mountains that seemed to

compete with each other for altitude. The Museum required groups to come in by

advance appointment only, and ours was for 10 a.m. the next morning.

We arrived somewhat ahead of time, and were made to wait until the doors

opened. But the English-language “Record Guides” (electronic gadgets that speak

into your ears explanations near each display), that were also reserved in

advance, were there for us; and we were free to roam the Museum during our

allotted time.

The principal “attraction” in the Museum is, of course, the mummified corpse of

the Iceman. It is kept in a special sealed room, where the temperature is always –

6° Celsius and the humidity is also controlled. A window is provided, through

which visitors can view the body. The Iceman, with his dried-out skin now dark

brown, lies in grotesque contortion, holding his wooden staff with both hands

(plate 25). Did he stumble and fall like that, or was he defending himself when he

froze to death?

Standing there gazing at the oldest

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